I SHOULD start with this article as a launch pad for a slew of such issues considered so mundane as to not get their fair share of the media spotlights, eventually being pushed out of official and societal attention altogether. Today's article is part of my repeated effort to make good on my pledge to my readers when I wrote about workers and summertime, in which I promised to revisit the issue of labor. Despite the broad headline, whatever I write here today barely scratches the surface of the complications and intricacies of the issue, rather for the lack of editorial space than to appease those who might take issue with the headline – especially those who consider the mere discussion of any reality in a transparent and honest manner or attempts to reach out to officials as the makings of a publicity scandal. Hence, to the possible chagrin of the Minister of Labor, I find myself having to throw a question up for discussion again, hoping that he would find the time to give me an answer instead of just ignoring me like he did before. So here's the multilayered question: are there any texts in the Kingdom's labor law that uphold the rights of workers in menial jobs (like maintenance and sanitation)? Are these rights clearly outlined in their labor contracts (and by those I mean the ones drawn up by the companies and institutions that recruit and hire them, since the vast majority of them come from social segments where poverty and ignorance are the order of the day)? Are there mechanisms, lawyers and legal channels that enable and empower laborers to claim these rights in the case that any of these companies or institutions failed to adhere to them, disregarding the fact that such conduct is an embarrassment to the country and tarnishes its human rights record, not to mention a violation of workers' rights? I'll climb down from my dreamy castle in the clouds to earth, to the reality that vast numbers of workers have to live with. I'll borrow an example that Dr. Nada Abdulaziz Al-Jallal brought to light during the King Saud University's female employees meeting with Dr. Abdullah Al-Othman, the university's director. As the topic of the meeting was about the employees' conditions, she pointed out the situation of foreign female laborers at the university – the cleaning ladies and maintenance workers. Even though his observations had to do with issues within the confines of the university itself, they reflect a broader issue that can be found in many other government and business workplaces – and therein lies the significance of Dr. Nada's point: it can be superimposed on many institutions that are in essential need for the manpower provided by these laborers, who are mostly contracted out by specialized companies that recruit them and hire them at the organizations that need them. Hence, these organizations, such as the university, are not their direct employers, and by extension, they are not legally and practically responsible for their situation, and that includes any and all possible violations of their rights on the part of the outsourcing company. From a legal standpoint, the companies that recruited them are the ones that are responsible. However, that does not mean that the organizations that benefit from the workers' services are not morally responsible for the conditions in which those laborers, who sometimes work around the clock, have to live with. Major issues concerning violations of laborers' rights specifically have to do with pay, working conditions, and empowerment to seek ways and mechanisms to reclaim their rights. Did anyone know, for instance, that those female workers at the university sometimes go unpaid for months, and sometimes aren't even paid until their contracts are up? Has anyone ever wondered where – and how – they live? How many of them share a room? How are the bathrooms? Do they eat hay or Marie Antoinette-style biscuits? What do they wear underneath those worn-out, faded blue uniforms that cannot possibly protect them from the summer's heat or Riyadh's frosty winter? Has anyone ever wondered where they can get medical attention – if they had that option in the first place? Can they even buy medicines in such times of skyrocketing prices? Has anybody taken pity on their lacerated skin, their tired eyes and their sun-baked faces? Has anyone taken issue with their untimely pneumonia caused by the inferior cleaning agents and detergents their bosses insist on providing them with to maximize their profits? Has it occurred to anyone that these materials that they use to mop floors and clean toilets can cause them not only pneumonia, but possibly cancer? Has anyone thought of how their employers can get away with complete disregard for providing a safe working environment and valuing the lives of their workers, simply because there's no one to monitor them and hold them responsible for the poor working conditions they put their workers in? I don't need to remind everyone of how these recruitment companies deny the workers their right to take holidays when the institutions they work for do, or how they are sometimes forced to work at the homes of their bosses, or how they are used as household laborers during vacations, for fees the majority of which go to the coffers of their recruiters. I'm sure everyone has seen examples of the abuse, maltreatment and prejudice they have to endure from some individuals in their places of work. Only they can describe the sense of estrangement and alienation they feel in places where people get angry and suspicious if these workers so much as talk to each other. You can see in their eyes that they miss their children and loved ones, and how bad they feel when they are denied a chance to send what little money they have to come all the way here to make honestly to their families to pay for their food, treatment, tuition and the rent. What I'm really concerned with is to see solutions that enable these laborers, and especially the housemaids who are locked up behind high walls all day, to reclaim their rights, so as to protect and prevent both us and them from turning into victims of the possible consequences of social and judicial injustice, with implications that are hard for the naked eye to see under a surface of glitz and sheen. – Al-Jazirah __
